Reynolds Indicted In Teen Sex Scandal

For weeks the rumors had circulated about U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds: The freshman congressman from the 2nd Congressional District was under investigation for an alleged sexual relationship with a 16-year-old campaign worker.

In fact, the stories were making the rounds so frequently that Reynolds (D-Ill.) was prompted to make a pre-emptory strike, holding an unusual news conference in which he defiantly denied any truth to them. He attributed the reports to disgruntled campaign workers and to political enemies and said the campaign to discredit him was racially motivated.

But on Friday, reality overtook rumor as the 42-year-old former Rhodes scholar was indicted by a Cook County grand jury on criminal charges ranging from child pornography to obstruction of justice.

Not only did Reynolds have a sexual relationship with the campaign worker, the indictment charges, but he resorted to a series of measures to keep investigators from talking to her about it, including inducing her to go into hiding out of state. The indictment also charges that he attempted to get the young woman, now 18, to retract incriminating statements she had made to investigators.

In announcing the 20-count indictment Friday, Cook County State's Atty. Jack O'Malley said the campaign worker had been placed in protective custody because of charges that Reynolds had attempted to obstruct the investigation. He added that additional obstruction charges may be brought against others, but he declined to elaborate.

The indictment came as no surprise to Reynolds, married and a father of three, who remained in Washington on Friday. The congressman was expected to return to Chicago this weekend, in time for a bond hearing at 10 a.m. Monday in Cook County Circuit Court.

As he did a week ago, the congressman continued to profess his innocence, as did the battery of attorneys representing him.

"To charge me, they have to win," he said Friday before the indictment, anticipating a less severe set of charges. "They have to prove I did something I didn't do and that's impossible."

While the indictment may have come as no surprise, its sweeping nature did. Prosecutors have worried privately about the strength of the case and the veracity of the campaign worker, though the evidence certainly was bolstered by telephone conversations between the young woman and Reynolds that were taped by investigators.

The charges threaten to undo the political career of a man who turned a campaign for Congress into a crusade, running twice to unseat Gus Savage before succeeding in 1992.

Nor are the charges the first against him. Five years ago, a Cook County judge acquitted Reynolds after he was accused of sexually assaulting and soliciting a 20-year-old University of Illinois student.

The probe into Reynolds' private life comes as investigators from the criminal division of the U.S. attorney's office examine the first-term congressman's personal and public finances, including charges that his campaign opened bank accounts without reporting them to federal regulators.

At the center of the indictment is the campaign worker, whom Reynolds met two years ago when he was in the middle of a heated Democratic primary campaign against Savage and who later worked briefly for him as an intern. From June 1992 to September 1993, according to the charges, Reynolds had a relationship with her that included sex on a number of occasions while she was a minor.

The grand jury charged that on June 7, after the alleged relationship apparently had ended, Reynolds asked the young woman to furnish him with sexually explicit photos of a 15-year-old girl.

In June, the young woman went to authorities with her allegations.

In denying he did anything criminal, Reynolds has attacked the character of the woman, referring to her as an "emotionally disturbed nut case" who later left the military after admitting to being a homosexual.

Last week, Reynolds released the results of two polygraph tests that he took in June and July, which he offered as proof of his innocence. He also released an affidavit signed by the woman on June 21, which retracts her statements against Reynolds.

Emerging from a meeting Friday with prosecutors and Chief Criminal Court Judge Thomas Fitzgerald to determine when Reynolds would surrender, defense attorney Terry Gillespie said the congressman would prove in court the charges are false.

"The congressman is very saddened by the return of this indictment," Gillespie said, adding that he expected Reynolds would be released Monday on a personal recognizance bond.

As Reynolds defends himself against the criminal charges, his personal and campaign finances are the subject of federal scrutiny.